Method and apparatus for lacing a hank

ABSTRACT

A process for lacing a hank using a reciprocating needle threaded with an upper thread and a rotary looper feeding a lower thread therefrom, said process being characterized in that said both threads form in combination a plurality of half hitches at each end of the lacing for the formation of a knot and a series of regular lock stitches between said end knots.

United States Patent inventors Takashi Ohta;

Yoshinobu Adachi; Shygeru Tanaka; Toshiaki Norimatsu, all of Nobeoka-shi,

Japan Appl. No. 723

Filed Jan. 5, 1970 Patented Dec. 7, 1971 Assignee Asahi Kasei Kogyo Kabushiki Kalsha Osaka, Japan Priority Jan. 3, 1967 Japan /2 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LACING A HAN 5 Claims, 7 Drawing Figs. I

US. Cl 28/21, 28/72 SP, 289/2 Int. Cl B65h 55/00,

[50] Field ofSearch 289/l.5, 2', 28/21, 72

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,323,189 6/1967 l-lagashi 28/2l FOREIGN PATENTS 496,625 7/1930 Germany 28/21 Primary Examiner-Louis K. Rimrodt AttorneySughrue, Rothwell, Mion, Zinn & Macpeak ABSTRACT: A process for lacing a hank using a reciprocating needle threaded with an upper thread and a rotary looper feeding a lower thread therefrom, said process being characterized in that said both threads form in combination a plurality of half hitches at each end of the lacing for the formation of a knot and a series of regular lock stitches between said end knots.

PATENTEDDEE nan 11 25430 I SHEET 2 OF 2 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LACING A HANK This invention relates to an improved hank lacing or tying process and a machine adapted for carrying out same.

Hank lacing or tying operation is carried out, generally speaking, in the manual and thus labor-consuming way. For labor-saving purpose in this respect, various methods and apparatus adapted for mechanically performing the hank lacing operation have already been proposed. A representative thereof utilizes the chainstitch mechanism. Others propose to use needles of special design.

Both ends of the lacing must naturally be knotted for the prevention of unintentional loosening of the lacing. According to a prior proposal, the lea made of certain high polymer is used for heat setting of the lacing ends. According to a further prior proposal, a chainstitch unit is used for knotting the lacing ends. According to a still further prior proposal, a knotter unit is used for the desired purpose.

It is a considerable drawback in the utilization of the chainstitch principle for the hank lacing operation that the finished lacing can be released again only with considerable efforts. For carrying out other prior proposals, it is necessary to perform the knot formation in a separate process.

It is therefore the main object of the present invention to provide a process of the above kind set forth for obviating the aforementioned various conventional drawbacks, and an apparatus for performing the same.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a process for carrying out the hank lacing operation in a highly simplified way under utilization of a slightly modified lockstitch mechanism, and to provide an apparatus for carrying out said process.

These and further objects, features, and advantages will become more apparent asthe description proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. I is a cross-sectional view of a preferred apparatus adapted for carrying out the process according to this invention. especially showing a gearing and chain drive mechanism fitted therein.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the apparatus shown in FIG. I wherein, however, several parts have been broken away for a better demonstration of inner parts of the apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the mutual mechanical relationship of a needle, a rotary looper, a slide guide, and an operation control plate formed into a lateral slide guided thereby, all these parts being employed in said apparatus.

FIG. 4 shows several explanatory views, illustrating several successive operating steps for making a half hitch, an end knot of a lacing being formed of a combination of several successive these hitches.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a series of lock stitches for binding dividingly a part of a hank.

F IG. 6 is an explanatory view showing a series of half hitches for the formation of an end knot of a lacing.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing a completed lacing with its ends specifically knotted according to the principle of the invention.

Referring now to the drawings, especially FIGS. 1 and 2 thereof, the numeral [0 denotes a main body or housing of the machine according to this invention, said body being formed substantially into a stand and rigidly attached to a base 22 by means of a plurality of fixing bolts and nuts 150. The general configuration of said body I0 is designed substantially into a triangle with its apices rounded and bulged out as most clearly be seen in FIG. 1. The both sides of the triangle are formed into concave curves.

From a position in close proximity to the uppermost apex of said triangle shape of the main body 10, an upper arm shaped into a closed hollow cylinder projects axially and horizontally in the form of a cantilever. A lower arm 21 in the shape of a platelike cantilever is provided so as to occupy a parallel position to the upper arm 20, the root portion of the lower arm being made integral with the main body 10, as will be easily supposed from FIG. 2.

Within the interior space of said upper arm 20 and on the lower arm 21, there are provided essential working purts Constituting characteristic features of the machine shown, us will be more fully described hereinafter.

A needle bar 11 fitted with a needle 30 is mounted vertically reciprocatably at the free end part of the upper arm 20, in the manner as conventionally with the well-known lockstitch sewing machine, although bearing means for the bar 11 have been omitted from the drawing on account of its very popularity. In the similar way, roll bar 12 carrying at its lowermost end a rotatable roll 40 is also mounted vertically slidably, although its bearing means have been omitted from the drawing only for simplicity.

An upper shaft or arm shaft 13 extends horizontally within the interior space of the arm 20 and is rotatably mounted by means of a pair of bearing I31 and 132 which are supported from the interior wall surface of said arm, said shaft being provided at its one end with a crank 50 adapted for mechanical cooperation with said needle bar 11, as in the case of the regular sewing machine, while the opposite end of said arm shaft extends through the wall of the main body 10 into the interior space thereof, this inwardly projecting shaft end being rigidly attached with a gear 51. A chain wheel 52 is fitted integrally with said gear 51 for unitary rotation therewith.

The lower arm 21 is provided with a laterally arranged operation control assembly 14 and a roll 41 is rotatably mounted at a distance measured from said assembly 14in the longitudinal direction of the lower arm towards the main body 10, the mounted position of the second or lower roll 41 being in registration with the first or upper roll 40.

Operation control assembly 14 comprises, as most clearly be seen from FIG. 3, a stationary guide 62 which is rigidly mounted on the free end of said lower arm 21, although the fixing means have been omitted from the drawing only for simplicity. The guide 62 is formed integrally with four separated guide flanges 62a, 62b, 62c, and 62d for slidingly guiding a lateral slide 15, a needle guide opening 61 being bored through the stationary guide 62 at a position in registration with needle 30 and at an intermediate point between the longitudinal pair of guide flanges 62a and 62b of the guide 62.

The lateral slide 15 is fonned integrally at its central region when seen in the longitudinal direction thereof with a lateral projection or tongue 70 which extends beyond the side edge of the slide. The slide is further formed with a guide opening 133 in close proximity to the inward end 15a of the slide, an operating rod 71, attached fixedly at its one end with the free end of a rocker shaft 72, passing through said opening 133, thereby the slide being reciprocatingly driven, as will be more fully described hereinafter.

The rocker shaft 72 is mounted by means of a pair of bearings I34 and in physically parallel arrangement with the lower arm 2], said bearings being suspended from the lower surface thereof.

A segment gear 73 is fixedly attached to the opposite end of the rocker shaft 72 which passes through the wall of the main body 10, thus said segment gear being arranged within the interior space of the main body, as clearly shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

A tension spring 74 is attached at its one end with the rocker shaft 72, as seen from FIG. 3, the opposite end of said spring being attached to the lower arm 21, although not shown, thereby a resiliently returning action being applied to the assembly which comprises slide 15, rod 71, rocker shaft 72 and segment gear 73, as will be more fully described hereinafter.

Segment gear 73 is arranged to cooperate with an intermittent gear 75 which cooperates in turn with said chain wheel 52 through an endless chain 53 and a concentric full-tooth gear 136 which has been omitted from FIGS. 1 and 2 for simplicity of the drawing, yet being shown in FIG. 3 by imaginary lines.

Now assuming that the number of half hitches constituting an end knot of a lea be three and the number of lockstitches for dividingly and laterally binding a hank amounts to six, as

shown in FIG. 7, a half of the peripheral surface of the inter mittent gear 75 must be completely blank and thus nontoothed by virtue of the ratio of six half hitches and six lockstitches specifically selected leaing mode. Thus, the remaining half of the peripheral surface of the intermittent gear 75 must be truly in the form of an intermittent gear so as to have six equal pitched tooth groups as at 75a. The working ratio between the reciprocations of needle bar 11 and complete rotational movement of the intermittent gear 75 is so selected that for a complete rotation thereof the needle bar performs 12 reciprocations. The pitch between two successive tooth groups 75a is selected to be equal to the pitch of the lock stitches to be performed on the hank 137, the latter pitch being equal to the distance ashown in FIG. 7, although the latter distance is shown as the width of one of the yarn bundles as at 137a to be divided of the hank.

With continuous rotation of intermittent gear 75, the segment gear 73 is brought into periodical meshing with the intermittent gear teeth 75a and performs thereby a rocking motion. Motion is therefore transmitted from the segment gear 73 through rocker shaft 72 and guide rod 71 to the lateral slide 15 which is reciprocated on the stationary guide 62 in synchronism with the vertically reciprocating movement of needle 30, the tension spring 74 acting for periodical returning service.

Below the needle hole 61, a conventional rotary looper 16 containing rotatably a bobbin 80 as conventional in the regular sewing machine is provided, said looper being fixedly attached on one end of a shaft 81 as shown. This lower shaft 81 is mounted below the lower arm 22, although its bearing means designed and arranged in the similar manner as those denoted 134 and 135 have been omitted from the drawing only for simplicity. The shaft 81 is fitted at its opposite end with a drive gear 82, as will be clearly seen from FIGS. 1, 2, and 3.

Numeral l7 denotes a drive shaft which is arranged in such a position which substantially corresponds to the center of the main body 10 when seen in FIG. 1, the outer end, not shown, of said drive shaft being operatively connected to a certain prime mover such as an electric drive motor, although not shown. A main drive gear 90 is fixedly attached to the main drive shaft 17 at its inner end, as most clearly seen from FIG. 2, a chain wheel 91 being concentrically attached to said drive gear 90 which is kept in meshing with said gear 82. This gear 82 is kept in meshing through an intermediate gear 18 with said gear 51.

A supporting frame 19 adapted for mounting the shaft of a swift for hank, not shown, is seen at the left-hand side of FIG. 2. This frame 19 comprises a pair of stands 110 and 111 having respective bearing recesses 112 and 113 for rotatably receiving the shaft of said swift. There is provided a stationary guide plate 1 16 as a part of the machine which is designed and arranged to mount said frame 19 slidably in the longitudinal direction.

For intermittently feeding the frame 19 in its longitudinal direction and in synchronism with the reciprocating movement of needle bar 11, there is provided a drive mechanism generally shown at l 18 in FIGS. 1 and 2. The main part of the frame 19 is formed into an elongated box. As seen from FIG. 2, an imaginary line at 17 connecting the top ends of both stands 110 and 111 passes through the center of the main body 10 or the axis of main drive shaft 17. A longitudinal guide slot 114 is formed centrally in the upper surface of guide plate 116 for guiding the frame 19 in the longitudinal direction thereof, as was briefly hinted hereinbefore. For this purpose, two or more projections, made preferably into pins arranged in a row, are provided on the bottom of the box-shaped main body 19a of said frame 19, so as to cooperate with said elongated guide slot 114.

Rack teeth 115 are provided on one side edge of the main body 19a, the tooth pitch being selected so as to coincide with the yarn bundle pitch such as a shown in FIG. 7.

The width of guide plate 1 16 is substantially same with that of the said main body 19a. The guide plate 116 is rigidly connected at its one end with the base 22, although the fixing means have been omitted from the drawing for simplicity.

The drive system 1 18 comprises an auxiliary drive shaft 119 rotatably mounted in a pair of pedestal bearings 138 and 139 and fixedly attached with a chain wheel 120 which cooperates with said wheel 91 through an endless chain 151, said bearings 138-9 being mounted in turn on said base 22. At one end of said shaft 119, there is provided a bevel gear 121 fixedly attached thereto and kept in meshing with a gear 124, the latter being mounted on a lateral shaft 122 which is rotatably mounted at its both ends in pedestal bearings 123a and l23b mounted in turn fixedly on said base 22. An eccentric cam 125 is fixedly mounted on said lateral shaft 122, said cam being rotatably received in the crank-shaped base end 126a of an elongated actuating lever 126. With rotation of said lateral shaft together with said cam 125, the lever 126 is caused to oscillate in the longitudinal direction thereof. A lateral pin 127 is fixedly attached to the free end of said lever 126, so as to cooperate with rack teeth 1 15 Numeral 31 denotes a conventional upper thread bobbin which is rotatably mounted on the upper arm 20 as conventionally, the upper thread being taken out from the bobbin and conveyed through a conventional thread guide 32 and reciprocating hook 54 (FIG. 1) to the needle 30, as in the case of the regular sewing machine.

There are in practice three sets of the transmission system comprising several constituent parts 18, 51, 52, 53, 73, 75, and 82, said three sets being arranged in a radial mode directing towards respective apices of said triangular-shaped main body 10. One set thereof, arranged as directing towards the lower and left-hand apex is shown, as having those denoted with similar reference numerals affixed each with a prime. For the third transmission unit, the constituent parts are shown only partially for avoiding the complexity of the drawing. These parts are denoted with similar reference numerals as before, yet attached each with two primes.

In the practical apparatus, the arm unit comprises the upper arm, the lower arm, the upper shaft, the lower shaft, the needle bar and its operating crank mechanism, the roller pair 40 and 41, the looper and bobbin, the looper drive shaft, and the lateral guide and its guide and operating mechanism and the like, is provided in triplicate, for lacing a hank such as shown at 137 from three radial directions at the same time, as will become more fully as the description proceeds. The necessary power is also supplied from main drive shaft 17 and the main drive gear 90.

In practice, as referred to above, the axis of the main drive shaft 17 the imaginary axis connecting the centers of the mounting recesses 112, 113, the axes of the upper and lower arms 20, 21 are all kept in parallel to each other, although the mounting frame 19 is shown in somewhat offset position for avoiding any confusion from the otherwise crowded representation of the drawing.

For stepwise feeding of the mounting frame 19 for each reciprocating movement of the needle bar 11 with it needle 30 by the engaging of the rocker arm 126 with the rack teeth 115, any other known stepwise feed mechanism can be employed. As an example, a stepping electric motor may be used so as to cooperate with suitable known control means such as a rotary switch, or even an electronic circuit means such as a flip-flop.

The operation of the apparatus is as follows:

At first, a plurality of hanks, representatively, only schematically and partially shown at 137, is mounted in parallel one after another with a small relative gap corresponding to two successive lacing end knots, each knot comprising preferably three or four half hitches as schematically respresented in FIG. 6, on a swift, not shown, having preferably six radial arms, said swift being mounted in a nonrotatable manner on the frame 19 with the shaft of the former being mounted on the recesses 112 and 113, as hinted by a dash-dotted line 17 shown in FIG. 2.

r n some Then the drive motor, not shown, is started for driving the main drive shaft 17. Thus, motion is transmitted from the main drive gear to all the gears and chain wheels shown and described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

Although there are three lacing systems arranged radially, and all three needle bars as at 11 with their respective needles as at 30 are caused to reciprocate radially relative to the central axis 17 of the whole apparatus, and the operational mode is similar for each of the three lacing units, the following description will be mainly directed to the uppermost lacing unit including the needle bar 11, needle 30 and motion control lateral slide 15.

In this way, lateral slide is moved from its initial position shown in imaginary lines in FIG. 3 towards the full line position shown therein. During this sliding forward movement of the slide, the lateral tongue picks up the lower thread 141 extending from the lower thread bobbin 80 and emerging now from the needle opening 61 and carries it in the slide-advancing direction.

In practice, however, upper thread 140 is taken out from the upper bobbin 31, threaded through thread guide 32 and needle eye a and caught by the roller pair 40 and 41. For this purpose, the roller bar 12 is manually shifted upwards from the contacting position'with the mating roller 41 shown in FIG. 2, against the urging action of return coil spring 120, and then released for catching the upper thread end between these rollers under spring pressure. At the same time, the lower thread end is caught between these rollers in the same way. These thread end positioning operations are carried into effect in advance of the foregoing drive initiating and hank positioning operations, although certain succeeding operations have been given for the benefit of better understanding of the invention.

By the lateral shift of the lower thread part appearing through and above the needle hole 61, the underlying part of the lower thread 141 is kept substantially in pressure engagement with the right-hand and lower part of the inside wall of said needle opening when seen in FIG. 3. In this case, the related part of the hank 137 is positioned aside the operational range of the needle 30 for the formation of an end knot comprising a plurality of, preferably three, half hitches as shown in H0. 6.

At this stage, the mutual space relationship between upper and lower threads is as shown in FIG. 4 at a. By continuing further cooperation between the reciprocating needle 30 and the rotating looper, the mutual relationship between the upper and the lower threads will proceed, as shown in several succeeding steps b-g, so that three half hitches are formed one after another.

All the related working parts for performing the lacing end knot are so designed and arranged thatthe timing for return movement of the lateral slide 15 is carried into effect directly before the release of the upper thread from the needle hole 61 upon performing its cross-linking operation with the lower thread.

For each formation of a half hitch, the frame 19 is axially advanced one step, but at this stage the hank under consideration is not yet brought into the operation range of needle 30.

As was referred to, three half hitches are successively shaped in the above mentioned way, and each time the frame 19 is fed by one step. Each time, naturally, the slide is reciprocated in the aforementioned way through a pivotal movement of segment gear 73 by provisional engagement with one of the tooth groups 75a.

Meanwhile, the beginning end of the blank half periphery of the intermittent gear 75 will brought into engagement with the segment gear 73 so that the angular reciprocation is not brought about. At this case, the hank 137 is brought to a position where the reciprocating needle 30 can penetrate into the body of the hank, as hinted by its axial line 137' shown in F IG. 3. Under these operational conditions with the slide 15 receded from the full line position to the dash-dotted line position in FIG. 3, a plurality of lockstitches herein six, are erformed each time upon stepwise feeding of the frame 1 by cooperation of the rocking lever 126 with the rack 115, as in the case of a regular sewing machine. With a half rotation of the intermittent gear 75, six double-thread and single lockstitches are formed for dividingly binding or practically sewing the hank 137 in its lateral direction. Then, one of the tooth groups 75 is brought into engagement with the segment gear 73 which is then swiveled as before, so as to reciprocate the lateral slide 15.

At this stage, the hank 137 is carried away outside of the working range of the needle 30. In this way, a repeated formation of a plurality of, herein six, half hitches will be performed.

Then,'a series of lockstitches is formed on the next-succeeding hank, and so on.

When six or seven hanks have been laced in succession, the continuous combined knot comprising two practical end knots are severed at its middle point into two. Thus, the continuously laced hanks are separated individually.

The embodiment of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are as follows:

1. A machine for lacing a hank comprising a reciprocating needle for feeding an upper thread, a rotary looper for feeding a lower thread, said needle being mounted on a first arm of said machine and said looper being mounted on a second arm of said machine and said needle and looper being driven in synchronism with each other, said machine being characterized by that a lateral slide is mounted reciprocatably on the free end of said second arm and in proximity to said needle and said looper, said needle and looper forming said upper and lower threads into a plurality of half hitches to form an end knot for said hank with said slide positioned at its advanced position and a number of lockstitches to dividedly bind said hank with said slide positioned at its receded position.

2. A machine for lacing a hank, as set forth in claim 1, characterized in that a segment gear and an intermittent gear are provided so as to engage intermittently with each other and said lateral slide is driven to reciprocate from the intermittently engaging gear couple through a rocker shaft rigidly connected at its one end with said segment gear and pivotably connected at its other end with said slide.

3. A machine for lacing as set forth in claim 1, said lateral slide is arranged to move in close proximity of a needle hole bored through the second machine arm and positioned in registration with said needle, an actuating projection being formed to said slide and adapted to pass over said needle hole during each stroke of the movement of said slide so as to modify the relative position of the lower thread relative to the needle and the rotary hook.

4. A machine for lacing a hank as set forth in claim 1, characterized by a slidable mounting member adapted for receiving a swift carrying said hank, said mounting member is steppingly fed each time one step in synchronism with the reciprocation of said needle through a rack teeth formed on said mounting member, and a pivotingly reciprocating lever drivingly cooperating therewith.

5. A process for lacing a hank of yarn into substantially equal bundles by means of a two-thread lacing comprising a. forming a knot consisting of a plurality of half hitches from said two threads at one end of the lacing adjacent one side of said hank,

b. forming a plurality of lockstitches in said lacing from said two threads at spaced intervals in said hank, and

c. forming a knot consisting of a plurality of half hitches from said two threads at the end of the lacing adjacent the other side of said hank.

1 i II t i 

1. A machine for lacing a hank comprising a reciprocating needle for feeding an upper thread, a rotary looper for feeding a lower thread, said needle being mounted on a first arm of said machine and said looper being mounted on a second arm of said machine and said needle and looper being driven in synchronism with each other, said machine being characterized by that a lateral slide is mounted reciprocatably on the free end of said second arm and in proximity to said needle and said looper, said needle and looper forming said upper and lower threads into a plurality of half hitches to form an end knot for said hank with said slide positioned at its advanced position and a number of lockstitches to dividedly bind said hank with said slide positioned at its receded position.
 2. A machine for lacing a hank, as set forth in claim 1, characterized in that a segment gear and an intermittent gear are provided so as to engage intermittently with each other and said lateral slide is driven to reciprocate from the intermitteNtly engaging gear couple through a rocker shaft rigidly connected at its one end with said segment gear and pivotably connected at its other end with said slide.
 3. A machine for lacing as set forth in claim 1, said lateral slide is arranged to move in close proximity of a needle hole bored through the second machine arm and positioned in registration with said needle, an actuating projection being formed to said slide and adapted to pass over said needle hole during each stroke of the movement of said slide so as to modify the relative position of the lower thread relative to the needle and the rotary hook.
 4. A machine for lacing a hank as set forth in claim 1, characterized by a slidable mounting member adapted for receiving a swift carrying said hank, said mounting member is steppingly fed each time one step in synchronism with the reciprocation of said needle through a rack teeth formed on said mounting member, and a pivotingly reciprocating lever drivingly cooperating therewith.
 5. A process for lacing a hank of yarn into substantially equal bundles by means of a two-thread lacing comprising a. forming a knot consisting of a plurality of half hitches from said two threads at one end of the lacing adjacent one side of said hank, b. forming a plurality of lockstitches in said lacing from said two threads at spaced intervals in said hank, and c. forming a knot consisting of a plurality of half hitches from said two threads at the end of the lacing adjacent the other side of said hank. 